Carlos Sampayo

(b. 17 September 1943, Argentina)

Artwork by José Muñoz

The writer Carlos Sampayo is best known for the disturbing stories he made with artist José Muñoz. Sampayo met Muñoz in Spain after he fled from the military junta. They created 'Joe's Bar' (short stories about clients of a café in New York), 'Alack Sinner' (a hard-boiled detective in the style of film-noir), 'Jeu de Lumières', 'Billie Holiday' and other stories. Sampayo also worked with Oscar Zarate, Jorge Schiaffino and Solano López. Sampayo's work is unusually mature for the world of comics, because of its grimness. The expressionistic black and white drawing style of José Muñoz is the perfect form for these stories, which are not depressing because there's always some way out of the misery.